Side Chair
Period1760 - 1790
MediumMahogany, white oak, and Atlantic white cedar, the last two determined by microanalysis
Dimensions38.5 × 22.25 × 23 in. (97.8 × 56.5 × 58.4 cm)
MarkingsThe chair frame of one chair is marked "III" on the upper edge of the front seat rail, and its accompanying slip seat is stamped "V" on the underside of its front piece. The second chair is stamped "VII" on the upper edge of the front seat rail, and its accompanying slip seat frame is stamped "I" on the underside of its front piece.
ClassificationsSeating Furniture
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Amory L. Haskell, 1944
Object number1936
DescriptionOne of two. An open, slightly flaring back with a bow shaped crest rail features fluted and scrolled ears and a centered carved shell flanked by leaf carving. The symmetrical splat combines pierced and scrolled elements interlaced with a central diamond. The slip seat rests on plain rails molded on their upper edge. The front cabriole legs, which have shell carvings on the knees, end in claw and ball feet.Curatorial RemarksThe corner brackets are constructed in an unusual manner. They are made up of two pieces. The flat backing appears to be a separate piece glued to the seat rail and tenoned into the leg. The curved front is then glued on flush with the knee.NotesThere are two conflicting histories of ownership for this pair of New York Chippendale chairs. The 1944 Haskell sale catalog claims that they came from the "Collection of Mrs. Stillwell, Holmdel, N. J. / Collection of Thomas C. Ely and Mrs. E. Douglas Pew, her great-grandchildren / From L. Richmond, Freehold, N. J. / Exhibited at the Monmouth County Historical Association, Freehold, N. J." If this history is correct, then Mary Schenck Stillwell (1775 - 1864), widow of Capt. John O. Stillwell (1763 - 1847), would have been an early owner, but probably not the first. They would have then descended to her son Obadiah I. Stillwell (b. 1807), with whom she made her home for many years after the death of Capt. Stillwell. Obadiah's daughter, Mary Elizabeth Stillwell Roberts (1854 - 1895) would have inherited an interest in the chairs, followed by her daughter Marion E. Roberts Pew (1891 - 1986). She and a cousin, Thomas C. Ely, then sold the chairs to Louis Richmond, a prominent antiques dealer from Freehold, NJ, who in turn sold them to Mrs. J. Amory Haskell. Research carried out in 1977 suggested that the chairs were not from the Stillwells, but part of a set of eight originally owned by Philip Van Rensselaer (1747 - 1798) and his daughter Maria (1773 - 1832) which were part of the furnishings of Cherry Hill, the Van Rensselaer residence in Albany, NY. Three of these chairs are now owned by the Albany Institute of History and Art. They are numbered on the inside upper edge of the front seat rail V, VI, and VIII. The Association's two chairs are numbered III and VII. So it is possible that they came from the same set originally. It should be noted, however, that New York chairs of this form and detailing, with interlaced scrolls and a diamond pattern on the splat, claw and ball feet, and shell carving on the crest rail, were popular in their day.
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